Bird damage and insurance claim

TomTom

I hit a bird earlier today and did not think much about it. Just noticed this evening that the entire headlight unit is loose, the mounts are broken. The little panel that covers the light water spray unit is missing altogether. He did a fair bit of damage and I'd say it will cost a bit to repair. Its a Skoda superb and is only a few months old, so I'm fairly pissed off about it.

Just wondering if anyone knows what the process is with claiming this on insurance. I have to ring them yet but its the weekend so I doubt they would be able to give me an answer until monday. I don't want to lose my no claims either.

Stheno

You need to call them and have them come out and assess the damage (assuming you've fully comprehensive insurance)

You will lose some of your no claims as there is no third party to claim against.

chris85

I know women drivers get a lot of slack but calling them birds is a bit demeaning.

mackeire

the poor bird, was she ok?

passremarkable

It might not be worth your while claiming with the excess involved and also the possibility of effecting your bonus over this small claim.
If your bonus is protected against this type of claim then plough on..

Thatnastyboy

Ye must have hit a feckin ostrich to do that :eek:

As above, probably best to take it on the chin,

Good chance of losing ncb & standard excess would probably cover most of the damage anyway..

MuppetCheck

Check if you have no claims protection.

With washers its probably a xenon light. If it's vibrating around it will blind others. Needs to be sorted for your own sake as well as other road users. Horribly annoying on a new car.

the_syco

Get it priced first if you can, as I'd say this will just cause your insurance to rise next year, and if you have any excess, the insurance company may only end up paying a small amount.

TomTom

It xenon alright and the adaptive light system so I'd say it will be a small fortune to replace. The washer part of it is missing altogether. I can't seem to find the unit online for an estimate. Going to call the insurance company to find out tomorrow as it seems their claim line is open. Going to get a quote from a skoda garage for the damage.

The bird more or less vanished. I was just after coming off a roundabout, after a dead stop. So I was only going about 40 - 50kmph. The more I think about it the more annoying it is.

Chuck_Norris

I'll give you a price to put it into perspective. I've a 06 Octavia. Genuine headlight on that was €290+ VAT. So for a genuine Xenon unit, with adaptive lighting, quite a bit more.

the_syco

TomTom wrote: »

It xenon alright and the adaptive light system so I'd say it will be a small fortune to replace. The washer part of it is missing altogether. I can't seem to find the unit online for an estimate.

According to this it may be around the £680 to £850 mark, but as the page is about 4 years old, it may be cheaper or dearer.

Others should here be able to tell you how much your insurance will go up next year after after you claim this year.

oldyouth

I'd be spittin' feathers if that happened to me.:D

Anyway, unless you have a protected NCB, it will be affected. The damage seems to be lower than the policy excess regardless, so I'd let it be

Chuck_Norris

the_syco wrote: »

According to this it may be around the £680 to £850 mark, but as the page is about 4 years old, it may be cheaper or dearer.

Others should here be able to tell you how much your insurance will go up next year after after you claim this year.

I may be wrong, but that looks like the cost of installing it as an option at the time. Not the cost to replace the headlight unit.

MuppetCheck

EBay is useful at these times. The cover for the washer is small change to be honest so don't worry about that. But some insurance policies have decent no claims protection so price up the fix, then ask about the insurance implications.

I've had a bird do damage to a car before. It's annoying but it could be worse...you could be the bird;)

Mr Keek

It is covered, but as others say, you are claiming off yourself.

Yer Excess is going to be around 300 approx, check your policy schedule. Anything up to the excess amount is covered by yourself, the insurance company covers the rest. How much is the headlight? Not worth claiming for to be honest.

If you claim, you will will loose your NCB. If it's protected, you won't but your options for shopping around next year will be limited as many companies refuse people wth claims in the past 3 years. NCB protection applies to your Discount, tht's safe, you will still have a claim on your record.

Pure sickner, especially when you've not had the car tht long, sorry to hear about it.

MetzgerMeister

MuppetCheck wrote: »

you could be the bird;)

Are you serious??? How the hell could a bird post on boards?!........after being hit by a car! He'd want a few days to recover first or it'd be like drunk-posting :pac:

A few days before I traded in my last car, I was heading home from work when all of a sudden there was a loud bang from the passenger side. I got such a fright, I had to pull in only to find the glass hanging from the mirror housing by the cable to heat it, the cover gone and blood all over the window.

Turns out a bloody pheasant flew out of the hedge just as I was passing and hit the mirror. He was lying on the road, neck bent and I hope dead along with my mirror cover which was in a few pieces.

It wasn't worth my while getting it fixed up because I already got a trade-in price for the car and it would have been a waste of money. Also, the garage were able to get the parts for half nothing. If I wasn't getting rid of it, I would have been buying the parts myself to save my NCB but it was only the glass and cover that I needed, the whole mirror mechanism was fine.

What you should do is price up the parts (and labour if you're not mechanically minded) and see how it compares to the cost of claiming.

MuppetCheck

I've seen bigger twits post here...